Boeing’s Bad News Will Follow it to Earnings

Boeing (NYSE:BA), mired in Dreamliner drama, will report earnings next week. Even with the public relations nightmare and the tense contract negotiations with a labor union factored out, expectations aren’t that high. Analysts are forecasting a 9.2 percent year-over-year decline in net income to $1.19 per share, on a 14 percent rise in revenue to $22.36 billion.

Results falling in line with expectations would echo similar progress made by the company last quarter. That is, falling profit and rising revenue could become a trend. The company has nearly 800 orders for the Dreamliner worth nearly $200 billion sitting on the table. But Boeing has already invested $32 billion to develop the plane, and the battery fiasco could push the company into a costly rut. An expected production ramp could also be delayed because of the issues.

Boeing will head into next week’s earnings report with a number of bad news bears in tow. A conference call later in the day will probably yield some Q&A about the ongoing investigation, but it seems unlikely that Boeing would wait until the call to reveal good news, and even more unlikely that it would willingly reveal any bad news that it didn’t have to. Speculation has grown since fleets of the 787 were grounded around the world, and the cost to carriers like United Air Lines (NYSE:UAL), which has six Dreamliners, is growing. It’s unclear what, if anything, Boeing will be held liable for…